Structural flexibility in the Burkholderia mallei genome

doi:10.1073/pnas.0403306101

Structural flexibility in the Burkholderia mallei genome

^*Institute for Genomic Research, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850; Departments of ^†Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ^¶Pharmacology, and ^∥Microbiology and Tropical Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine, 2300 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20037; and ^§U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, 1425 Porter Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5011

Edited by E. Peter Greenberg, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, and approved July 26, 2004 (received for review May 10, 2004)

Abstract

The complete genome sequence of Burkholderia mallei ATCC 23344 provides insight into this highly infectious bacterium's pathogenicity and evolutionary history. B. mallei, the etiologic agent of glanders, has come under renewed scientific investigation as a result of recent concerns about its past and potential future use as a biological weapon. Genome analysis identified a number of putative virulence factors whose function was supported by comparative genome hybridization and expression profiling of the bacterium in hamster liver in vivo. The genome contains numerous insertion sequence elements that have mediated extensive deletions and rearrangements of the genome relative to Burkholderia pseudomallei. The genome also contains a vast number (>12,000) of simple sequence repeats. Variation in simple sequence repeats in key genes can provide a mechanism for generating antigenic variation that may account for the mammalian host's inability to mount a durable adaptive immune response to a B. mallei infection.

Footnotes

↵ ‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wnierman{at}tigr.org.
This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
Abbreviations: CDS, coding sequence; TIGR, The Institute for Genomic Research; cfu, colony-forming units; IS, insertion sequence; SSR, simple sequence repeat.
Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. CP000010 and CP000011).